The trucks will cross into Gaza through Kerem Shalom, the southern border crossing from Israel that has been opened after a consensus was reached by all parties to allow emergency relief supplies through.

WHO also sent one truckload of urgently-needed medical supplies to Gaza through the crossing yesterday.

Crucial

“There is a serious humanitarian crisis developing in Gaza as a result of the recent turmoil and closure of the border crossings. It is crucial that food and other humanitarian assistance continue to reach the increasingly desperate population,” said Arnold Vercken, WFP Country Director in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

Gaza relies on the importation of all basic commodities, however, with the recent border closures, commercial food stocks in Gaza are quickly being depleted and are expected to run extremely low within two weeks as people panic buy flour, sugar and oil.

Already in the past few days wheat flour prices have shot up by 40 percent and commercial food stocks have already run out in some areas.

Purchasing power

The purchasing power of the population in Gaza has been heavily affected by the closures, violence, the destruction of property, looting and the inability to go to work. Overall, there is a growing dependency on humanitarian assistance.

WFP has managed to continue its food assistance but the challenges of providing such assistance are numerous in terms of logistics, securityand growing needs of the population.